Construction All Star Heroes

The All Star game may have made headlines for St. Louis, but the Midwest Council, American Subcontractors Association, recently put together some lifetime baseball memories of its own.

The ASA was looking for a way to give back to active U.S. military in the St. Louis area. The answer: Cardinals Baseball. ASA members donated 146 tickets with a face value of $9,100 to the USO. The average ticket value was over $62 each.  One firm also donated food and drink vouchers also with their tickets. Military from Whiteman AFB, Fort Leonard Wood, Scott Air Force Base, Springfield Missouri, Sparta IL

Tom McDonnell, of George McDonnell and Sons, who coordinated the ticket effort, explained how it came about. “At ASA’s July 2007 meeting, the members had an open discussion about fundraisers and helping in the community.  A number of ideas, such as a canned food drive, which was implemented over the Christmas holidays, were floated. Hugh Young of United Rentals suggested helping USO of Missouri.”

Major David Motes of the 101st Airborne, with Wife Sarah and Daughter Molly at a Cardinals/Twins game.

ASA received a number of emails from military, including the following from Major David Motes:

"Ms Gillick, Mr. Fogarty, and Team at the ASA-Midwest Council:

" I am a Soldier very recently assigned to Scott AFB, IL.  Since 2002, I've been on four deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq for a total of 40 months. In fact, I just returned six months ago from my latest deployment to Iraq while on assignment with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

"I want to express my sincerest gratitude for your organization's donation of the baseball tickets.  Despite the loss last night to the Twins, my family and I had a great time!  My daughter is just only recently getting into the excitement of Cardinals baseball.  We thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the game, especially when we yelled "charge!" as a family in the hopes that the Redbirds would pull out a victory.

"I've attached a picture of my family at last night's game.

"Again, I want to thank you for the gift of the tickets!

Regards,

Dave Motes"

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